


Into the Night

by Allstarsburnas01



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Pre-Dark Disciple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25193107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allstarsburnas01/pseuds/Allstarsburnas01
Summary: Old friends make an attempt at normalcy before the end of the world
Relationships: Kit Fisto/Eeth Koth, Luminara Unduli & Quinlan Vos
Kudos: 11





	Into the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as a prequel to Corruption

When Obi-wan wakes him up in the middle of the night, Quinlan knows that something unauthorized and possibly illegal, is about to happen. Usually, he'd welcome it, blowing off steam between missions, letting himself go before having to make up yet another falsified persona. Tonight, however, he finds that he'd rather stay in bed. Maybe, like Fisto keeps joking, its because he's getting older, running out of steam. But he's pretty sure it has something to do with the anxious feeling in his stomach, knowing that tomorrow he'll have to track down, trick, and ally with a Sith agent. Or, as Obi-wan keeps insisting, a _former_ Sith agent. As if that makes any difference. Sure, he's conned some pretty bad people, but a Sith definitely takes the cake.

“Quinlan, I know you're awake.” Obi-wan's smooth accent cuts through the silence. “Don't make me flip the bed over.”

“Fine,” Quinlan mutters, sitting up and grudgingly pulling himself out of the bed. “What is it, Obi-wan?”

“We're going out.”

“We?”

Not a second after he asks the question, he becomes aware of more force presences waiting outside of his door. It takes his sleep-addled brain a moment to identify them as Fisto and Koth; the usual troublemakers. “Oh.”

Quinlan sighs, defeated. He's obviously not getting out of this one. Quickly, he pulls on his street clothes, stowing his lightsaber away in a special compartment in his coat. “Let's go.”

He exits his room with Obi-wan and begins to walk the familiar path down to the hangar. He's surprised, though, when Obi-wan and the others take a turn that isn't a part of their normal escape route. Quinlan is about to voice his confusion when they stop at a door that is surprisingly familiar. This can't be right, he thinks. _She'd_ never do something like _this_. But it happens, all the same. Kit Fisto, giggling like the child he still is at heart, raises a fist to knock, and the door swings open to reveal none other than Luminara Unduli.

She's dressed in a way that Quinlan has never seen her dress before. Her headdress is gone, revealing dark hair that brushes her jawline, much longer than the close-cropped styles that Quinlan has caught glimpses of over the years. Her clothing is tight and covers much less than her Jedi attire, revealing that Luminara has many more tattoos than Quinlan's ever seen. Her face is the same, however: stoic and unfeeling, but Quinlan swears he sees a hint of a twisted smile cross her face at the look of utter shock he's sure is evident in his own features.

“Luminara?” He manages to choke out, before she strides out of her doorway to join him and the others. The look she gives him clearly communicates: _“We'll talk later.”_

He manages to hold back his questions until they're in the speeder, the streets of Coruscant rushing by beneath them. He and Luminara are crammed into a seat for two with Kit Fisto next to them, laughing hysterically at some joke Eeth Koth, turned completely around in the seat in front of them, has just made.

“So,” He asks the mirilan woman next to him, raising his voice to compete with the wind, “Exactly how much has changed since I've been gone?” He tries to keep his voice steady, inject a bit of humor into it, but in reality he feels guilty. His oldest childhood friend has obviously gone through an enormous transformation, and he has no idea why. His undercover jobs keep him away for such long periods of time, and he tries not to let it bother him, but his absence in the lives of his fellow Jedi always comes back somehow, and he remembers that he's a stranger in the Temple.

Luminara smiles at him. Its something he hasn't seen since they were children, but her smile is sad now, as if she understands the sorrows of the world and finds it almost funny that she is burdened with them. “My padawan. I'm sure you didn't hear.”

The guilt stabs at him again. “Bariss? What happened?” He hopes, prays, that its some temporary setback, that Bariss hasn't died, or worse, that she hasn't-

“She betrayed us.” Luminara's voice cracks, and the heavy black that she's marked under her lash line begins to run, stained with tears. “She left us.”

“Luminara, I'm-”

“It's okay, Quinlan. I know you didn't know.”

Quinlan wants to bury his face in his hands, chastise himself for not being there for her. But instead he pushes his sorrow for himself aside, and wraps his friend in his embrace. “I'm so sorry, Luminara.”

They stay like that for a while, until Luminara stops shaking with repressed sobs. “Do I look okay?” She laughs weakly as she pulls away.

“Yeah, of course you do,” Quinlan mutters back, more out of instinct than any inspection of her physical appearance. He tries to hold the question back, but its on the tip of his tongue and as soon as he opens his mouth, it rolls right off. “So...what's with all...this?” He gestures at he hair, her clothes, at the city around them, growing progressively darker as they descend into the bowels of the planet.

She smiles again, this time more sheepishly than anything else. “We all have ways of coping, I suppose.” He smiles back, because, boy, does he know about coping.

The speeder settles down, finally, raising up a fair amount of dust and garbage. They exit, Obi-wan in the lead, heading towards an enormous grey building from which vibrations of electronic music can already be felt. When they enter, Quinlan is blown away at the volume of the music. He looks over at Luminara next to him, only to find that she's been transformed. The colored lights have washed over her face, making her look almost like a stranger. An almost insane grin breaks across her features, and Quinlan can barely make out a syllable before she grabs his hand and pulls him towards the bar. The other three are laughing and yelling behind it, and before Quinlan knows it, Luminara has ordered them all shots and he's pouring alcohol down his throat like a madman. Luminara wanted to talk about coping? Well in that case, he sure had a lot of coping to do.

To his surprise, Luminara cuts them off at round five. He should have seen it coming, he figures. Even like this, Luminara is still the same strict, responsible woman he's always known. Fisto and Koth get up to dance, and Luminara goes with them. They ask him to come, too, but he opts to stay at the bar with Obi-wan.

“I'm assuming you feel as if you have to watch over her,” Obi-wan comments, signaling the bartender to bring them more drinks.

“Yeah.” Quinlan grunts back a response. He isn't sure how he feels about it, but it certainly isn't a comfortable feeling, especially as he watches her dance up against strangers, laughing obliviously.

“You feel guilty, don't you?”

“Shut up, Obi-wan.” He doesn't feel like joking around anymore. He wishes he were still at the Temple, asleep and ignorant of the fact that he'd failed one of his friends. Again.

“Well, I don't blame you. Maybe Luminara would have recovered in a more...orthodox manner if you'd been there to guide her through it all.” Obi-wan's voice has taken on a bitter tone. He's not joking anymore, either.

“You some kinda lightweight, all of a sudden?” Quinlan can feel the anger bubbling up and twisting inside of his chest and he struggles to keep it contained, the way a Jedi is supposed to. “Are you drunk already, _Kenobi_? Because you're not sounding like a sober man right now.”

Obi-wan's eyes narrow at the way Quinlan uses his last name. “Not at all, _Vos,_ ” He returns the favor. “I'm just letting you know what I think of your little _act_ , spending all of your time with the galaxy's scum, 'undercover.'” He spits out the last word sarcastically. “If I didn't know better, I'd say you preferred their company to ours.”

That settles it. Quinlan slams his fist on the bar counter, hard enough for the cheap marble to crack underneath it. He rises from his seat, ready to draw his lightsaber and settle whatever problem Obi-wan had with him, but a glimpse over at Luminara stops him. He sinks back into his seat. He's already caused her -all of them- enough grief. He breathes, letting the anger drain from his mind, and tries to think logically. Obi-wan, clearly drunk, must have started drinking before they'd gotten to the bar. How Quinlan hadn't noticed and how they hadn't died with him driving is a mystery to him but the fact remains that Obi-wan's force signature feels off, and he's saying things he'd never say while in his right mind. Something that happened earlier must have set him off, Quinlan thinks. Then it comes to him.

“Its Ventress, isn't it?”

Obi-wan freezes where he is, almost dropping his drink. “No.”

“Look, Obi-wan, whatever it is you two have going on, I'm not going to-”

“There is _nothing_ going on!” This time the drink _does_ drop, thrown to the ground in anger. No one else at the bar pays them any mind, to them they just look like a normal pair of friends, having a normal drunk fight. In the moment, Quinlan finds himself wishing that it was true more than anything.

“We need to get you home, Obi-wan.”

To his surprise, he manages to force signal the others through the thick mass of bodies and hormones. Upon their arrival, which they make in significantly less clothing and significantly more sweat, Quinlan explains the complex situation:

“Obi-wan's drunk.”

Fisto and Koth nod in understanding, and Luminara, having significantly less experience, pouts for a moment until a slurred “Fuck you,” from Obi-wan convinces her of the severity of the situation. They leave the club in a much quieter manner than the one in which they'd arrived, Koth taking the wheel after having been decided the most sober of the five, most likely due to his Zabrack genetics. Luminara falls asleep on Quinlan's shoulder, where he lets her stay until they arrive at the Temple. He gently shakes her awake and walks with her back to her room after Fisto and Koth promise to take care of Obi-wan. He's sure Kenobi will wake up with at least one inappropriate drawing on his body.

“Quinlan?”

“Yeah, Luminara?” They've stopped in her doorway.

“Obi-wan didn't say anything to you at the bar, right? I mean, nothing like he was saying when we took him out...”

For a second, Quinlan considers telling her everything. About Obi-wan's words, about how true they rang in his own mind, about how he didn't even know who he _was,_ or _whose_ company he enjoyed, about how scared he was to go undercover with a _Sith_.

Then he sees the hurt in her eyes as she looks at him, remembers Bariss, remembers that tomorrow he'll be gone again, and that Luminara doesn't need something else to worry about, to fuel sorrow her as she tries to cope with her life collapsing around her. He knows he won't be able to forgive himself if he becomes the reason that, tomorrow, she doesn't stop at five shots.

“Of course not, Luminara. Of course not.”

* * *

The next morning, he hugs her goodbye and climbs onto his transport while the sun shines brilliantly over Coruscant. Obi-wan walks onto the loading dock, guilt in his eyes, and waves hopefully. Anger bubbles up inside Quinlan's chest.

He grins brightly, and waves back.


End file.
